Project Fibonacci Foundation ESTEAMed Speakers Series: Science Bob & Walker Smith Double Feature!

“Science Bob’ Pflugfelder is a science communicator, teacher, maker, author, and presenter that knows how to make the world of science come alive in a big way. He regularly appears on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, “Live with Kelly & Ryan”, and “The Dr. Oz Show”. He has also appeared on “Join Or Die With Craig Ferguson”, “Good Morning America”, “The Today Show”, and others as well as guest starring as himself on several episodes of Nickelodeon’s “Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, & Dawn”. Pflugfelder has also appeared on television internationally in Japan, Rome, and Singapore.

Pflugfelder shares his excitement of science at many science and maker events including The World Science Festival, The White House Science Fair, USA Science & Engineering Festival, The Singapore Science Festival, World Maker Faire, and Maker Faire Rome.

His popular “Nick & Tesla” children’s book series has encouraged many elementary and middle school students to read and build their own gadgets. To date, the series has been translated into 10 languages.

Articles on Pflugfelder’s experiments have appeared in People Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Popular Science, Disney’s Family Fun, and WIRED.

Walker Smith (b. 1999) is a ‘musical chemist,’ whose work combines research, composition, science communication, and performance. Originally from Knoxville, TN, Walker completed dual degrees in Chemistry and Music composition at Indiana University, Bloomington in December 2022. Throughout his undergraduate career, his organic chemistry research has received several prestigious national awards and fellowships, including a Goldwater Scholarship and an American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Fellowship. When not in the chemistry labs, he was composing musical works for a variety of ensembles and genres—spanning string quartets, solo piano, chamber groups, orchestra, and musical theatre—and has written for major ensembles, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. While studying spectroscopy alongside electronic music, Walker asked the question, “What would molecules sound like?” He realized that he could combine his interests by converting spectroscopic data of molecules—which shows us molecules’ rotational, vibrational, and energetic behavior—into sounds.

From these sounds, he developed an immersive music/science show, “The Sound of Molecules,” presented nearly a dozen times at schools, museums, and conferences across the U.S. and Europe. In his one-man show, he appears as the characters “Maestro Molecules” and “Roy G. Biv,” taking the audience on an immersive audiovisual journey combining surround sound, lights, animations, costumes, and lasers in a “sonic tour of the molecular world.” His performance has received national awards and has repeatedly made international headlines in the press spanning North and South America, Europe, and South Korea. Walker plans to continue his interdisciplinary research and performances connecting chemistry and music. He has accepted a Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands (2023-24) and a Ph.D. in Computer Music at Stanford University (2024), through both of which he will continue his ‘musical chemistry’ work.”